Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[RAFster122s]

Enjoying race tracks behind the wheel or on a bike is something few of us have the pleasure of experiencing. I have been on a couple tracks and they are great memories.
I bet John has many like this etched in his brain...

[Don R]

 I got my 40 chevy out of the storage unit and went to our last car show of the year. we had 85 or so cars and made $1,117 for the local VFW on top of what they made on their food stand and craft sale.
 Somehow, I had allowed the gas to get low but made it to the gas station without running out. I still need to take some timing back out once I find the timing mark again.

 Let's see, where did I leave that timing mark? It was under the chrome timing tab.

[scottly]

About the middle of July, the outside air temp, normally displayed on the radio LCD screen of my 2014 Chevy Sonic, disappeared. No biggie, I didn't need it to tell me it was fooking hot! Then, on August 8, the AC suddenly quit working, and it was still fooking hot. Opening the hood, I found little tiny footprints on the engine, as well as rodent turds near the fuse box. I didn't see any evidence of chewed wires, and couldn't find any obvious problems, and 2 different scanners didn't show anything. The system had a full charge of refrigerant.
I read on the 'net that the Ambient Temperature Sensor, mounted in the grill, would prevent the AC from working, but the AC had worked for several weeks after the sensor had failed??
The part was only $14, but, according to the 'net, you have to pull the whole front bumper off the car to replace it. I did find a youtube video where a guy pried out an insert in the bumper to access it, but it didn't want to come out. I then removed the front half of the inner fender liner, and found a pair of wires, that appeared to head off towards the sensor, with one of them chewed completely apart. Wow, looks like an easy fix!!! I twisted the two ends of the wire back together, and started the car. After a few seconds, the temp appeared on the display:-39F. WTF? Of course, if the computer thinks it's that cold, it won't allow the AC to come on. I thought maybe I didn't get a good connection, so I used a jumper with alligator clips, but got the same -39F. I decided there must still be a problem with the sensor, so I used brute force to pry back the insert in the bumper, sending bit's of plastic flying when it came free, and then was able to reach in with my left arm up to the elbow (with thoughts that I might get stuck and didn't have my phone) to pull the sensor out. I plugged in the new sensor, started the car, and the display said -39F. WTF!!! I was going to try shorting out the two wires, but there wasn't a convenient way to do it with the plug, so I tried without a sensor plugged in at all. The temp disappeared from the display, but now the AC worked!!??? I plugged a sensor in, and back to -39F and no AC. By that time, it was getting dark, I was bruised, bleeding, and sore from working on my knees and all the getting down and back up, and thoroughly confused. As I was gathering my tools, I had a thought to try disconnecting the battery; I had tried that already, but that was before finding the broken wire. After a couple of minutes, I reconnected the battery, and with a sensor plugged in, started the engine. After a few seconds, 78F pops up on the display!
Somehow, the computer got invalid data locked in or something? Disconnecting the battery on this car doesn't even erase the programmed radio stations! I never had to do all the extra work to remove the sensor, and there was no way to reinstall the sensor in the grill with the limited access, so I drilled an existing hole behind the bumper insert larger and plugged the sensor in there. That part pissed me off.    

[grcamna2]

About the middle of July, the outside air temp, normally displayed on the radio LCD screen of my 2014 Chevy Sonic, disappeared. No biggie, I didn't need it to tell me it was fooking hot! Then, on August 8, the AC suddenly quit working, and it was still fooking hot. Opening the hood, I found little tiny footprints on the engine, as well as rodent turds near the fuse box. I didn't see any evidence of chewed wires, and couldn't find any obvious problems, and 2 different scanners didn't show anything. The system had a full charge of refrigerant.
I read on the 'net that the Ambient Temperature Sensor, mounted in the grill, would prevent the AC from working, but the AC had worked for several weeks after the sensor had failed??
The part was only $14, but, according to the 'net, you have to pull the whole front bumper off the car to replace it. I did find a youtube video where a guy pried out an insert in the bumper to access it, but it didn't want to come out. I then removed the front half of the inner fender liner, and found a pair of wires, that appeared to head off towards the sensor, with one of them chewed completely apart. Wow, looks like an easy fix!!! I twisted the two ends of the wire back together, and started the car. After a few seconds, the temp appeared on the display:-39F. WTF? Of course, if the computer thinks it's that cold, it won't allow the AC to come on. I thought maybe I didn't get a good connection, so I used a jumper with alligator clips, but got the same -39F. I decided there must still be a problem with the sensor, so I used brute force to pry back the insert in the bumper, sending bit's of plastic flying when it came free, and then was able to reach in with my left arm up to the elbow (with thoughts that I might get stuck and didn't have my phone) to pull the sensor out. I plugged in the new sensor, started the car, and the display said -39F. WTF!!! I was going to try shorting out the two wires, but there wasn't a convenient way to do it with the plug, so I tried without a sensor plugged in at all. The temp disappeared from the display, but now the AC worked!!??? I plugged a sensor in, and back to -39F and no AC. By that time, it was getting dark, I was bruised, bleeding, and sore from working on my knees and all the getting down and back up, and thoroughly confused. As I was gathering my tools, I had a thought to try disconnecting the battery; I had tried that already, but that was before finding the broken wire. After a couple of minutes, I reconnected the battery, and with a sensor plugged in, started the engine. After a few seconds, 78F pops up on the display!
Somehow, the computer got invalid data locked in or something? Disconnecting the battery on this car doesn't even erase the programmed radio stations! I never had to do all the extra work to remove the sensor, and there was no way to reinstall the sensor in the grill with the limited access, so I drilled an existing hole behind the bumper insert larger and plugged the sensor in there. That part pissed me off.    

A lot of work,but you got your A/C back.

[RAFster122s]

Dang Scott, this should be cross posted to the pissed off thread! Congrats on getting it working and figuring out the reset.

[BenelliSEI]

Unloaded the race car for final checks before next weekend (three enduros in three days!) and the clutch pressure plate broke, going onto the alignment rack!!

Talk about lucky. Parts ordered and lots to do……. We have a busy week.

[grcamna2]

Unloaded the race car for final checks before next weekend (three enduros in three days!) and the clutch pressure plate broke, going onto the alignment rack!!

Talk about lucky. Parts ordered and lots to do……. We have a busy week.

Good thing it isn't for This weekend John  you've got over a week;I hope it(parts)goes well. 

[BenelliSEI]

Unloaded the race car for final checks before next weekend (three enduros in three days!) and the clutch pressure plate broke, going onto the alignment rack!!

Talk about lucky. Parts ordered and lots to do……. We have a busy week.

Good thing it isn't for This weekend John  you've got over a week;I hope it(parts)goes well. 

Bill….. New clutch kit arrives Monday. We’ll get it upon the hoist (at Tim’s 7 bay auto repair shop) Monday afternoon and pull the trans. Should be plenty of time, we did everything else last night…….

[HondaMan]

I fixed a chip in the windshield of my Explorer with one of those 'kits' from the local auto parts store.
I hope it holds: the windshield isn't very old! The chip was, of course, right smack dab in the front of my line-of-sight when driving, and the only chip on the whole thing.

[BenelliSEI]

I fixed a chip in the windshield of my Explorer with one of those 'kits' from the local auto parts store.
I hope it holds: the windshield isn't very old! The chip was, of course, right smack dab in the front of my line-of-sight when driving, and the only chip on the whole thing.

My wife had the last one fixed by a young lady under an awning, in a Costco parking lot! She did such a good job I still can’t figure out where it was….. Impressive stuff.

[CycleRanger]

I fixed a chip in the windshield of my Explorer with one of those 'kits' from the local auto parts store.
I hope it holds: the windshield isn't very old! The chip was, of course, right smack dab in the front of my line-of-sight when driving, and the only chip on the whole thing.

My wife had the last one fixed by a young lady under an awning, in a Costco parking lot! She did such a good job I still can’t figure out where it was….. Impressive stuff.

My insurance covers chipped glass. For some reason.
(I had the windshield replaced once already and it was cheaper than my deductible.)
I had a chip repaired at the local glass place just before I went on a 2500 mile trip.
The first day out I picked up another big chip. 
I had that one fixed and so far it's holding.

So today I today I finally opened up the dash on my '02 Tundra and replaced the light bulb for the cruise control indicator.
It's been out for several years.  Before that I had to replace the "D" indicator bulb.
The cruise bulb burned out like a week later.    I was so annoyed I left it until today.

[Don R]

 I had a new chevy plumber truck in the 80's, it had an odd wave defect in the glass. GM said they couldn't see it, my boss agreed so I got used to it.
  I did park one with scratched glass (apprentice scraped frost with a steel clevis hanger) facing baseball practice. The coach asked me to move it, he didn't think the bounty I offered was funny.

[BenelliSEI]

Pulled the transmission and replaced the clutch pressure plate, disc and throwout bearing on the race car this evening. Here’s a nice shot Tim took earlier. This Dodge is on his “used car “ lot, but I don’t think he really wants it sold…..

[Don R]

  We decided to remove the Holley EFI on our race car. It works fine except for our style of racing. We have a breakout ET of 8.90 and it always fights us to go faster. It also gets confused when we go on the throttle stop, better tuners than me have tried and also failed so the Carb goes back on for next season.
 It's a dominator base size, if I can find a low enough intake manifold, I'll use it on the Pontiac engine in my firebird.  It may only need 4 of the 8 injectors though.

[grcamna2]

  We decided to remove the Holley EFI on our race car. It works fine except for our style of racing. We have a breakout ET of 8.90 and it always fights us to go faster. It also gets confused when we go on the throttle stop, better tuners than me have tried and also failed so the Carb goes back on for next season.
 It's a dominator base size, if I can find a low enough intake manifold, I'll use it on the Pontiac engine in my firebird.  It may only need 4 of the 8 injectors though.

How's the body/chassis restoration going in your Firebird Don ?

[Bankerdanny]

Saturday I had to diagnose why the telltale for the outboard on the pontoon wasn't working. It's a small stream of water that shoots out to let you know the water pump is working. Fortunately it turned out to be some crud that was clogging the outlet. It probably happened when I was cleaning off deposits that had accumulated over the summer. I had to go buy a long handled needle nose to get it back together, but it was still less work than dropping the lower unit to replace the impeller. Plus I would have had a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to one of the nearest marina that had the part in stock. We ended up with a beautiful day, sunny and 85 degrees, probably the last one this year. Sunday it rained so I changed the oil in my Lincoln.

[grcamna2]

Saturday I had to diagnose why the telltale for the outboard on the pontoon wasn't working. It's a small stream of water that shoots out to let you know the water pump is working. Fortunately it turned out to be some crud that was clogging the outlet. It probably happened when I was cleaning off deposits that had accumulated over the summer. I had to go buy a long handled needle nose to get it back together, but it was still less work than dropping the lower unit to replace the impeller. Plus I would have had a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to one of the nearest marina that had the part in stock. We ended up with a beautiful day, sunny and 85 degrees, probably the last one this year. Sunday it rained so I changed the oil in my Lincoln.

Danny,that's Nice    off Michigan ?

[Bankerdanny]

Saturday I had to diagnose why the telltale for the outboard on the pontoon wasn't working. It's a small stream of water that shoots out to let you know the water pump is working. Fortunately it turned out to be some crud that was clogging the outlet. It probably happened when I was cleaning off deposits that had accumulated over the summer. I had to go buy a long handled needle nose to get it back together, but it was still less work than dropping the lower unit to replace the impeller. Plus I would have had a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to one of the nearest marina that had the part in stock. We ended up with a beautiful day, sunny and 85 degrees, probably the last one this year. Sunday it rained so I changed the oil in my Lincoln.

Danny,that's Nice    off Michigan ?

Gull Lake near Kalamazoo.

[grcamna2]

Saturday I had to diagnose why the telltale for the outboard on the pontoon wasn't working. It's a small stream of water that shoots out to let you know the water pump is working. Fortunately it turned out to be some crud that was clogging the outlet. It probably happened when I was cleaning off deposits that had accumulated over the summer. I had to go buy a long handled needle nose to get it back together, but it was still less work than dropping the lower unit to replace the impeller. Plus I would have had a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to one of the nearest marina that had the part in stock. We ended up with a beautiful day, sunny and 85 degrees, probably the last one this year. Sunday it rained so I changed the oil in my Lincoln.

Danny,that's Nice    off Michigan ?

Gull Lake near Kalamazoo.

Did you dive down w/ a mask and see the motorcycle at the bottom ? 
I read there's one down there.

[70CB750]

  We decided to remove the Holley EFI on our race car. It works fine except for our style of racing. We have a breakout ET of 8.90 and it always fights us to go faster. It also gets confused when we go on the throttle stop, better tuners than me have tried and also failed so the Carb goes back on for next season.
 It's a dominator base size, if I can find a low enough intake manifold, I'll use it on the Pontiac engine in my firebird.  It may only need 4 of the 8 injectors though.

I have Holley EFI in my jeep since 1999.   Best money I ever spent on a vehicle.

[BenelliSEI]

Busy finishing up the LEXUS for a very busy end of season race weekend. We’re headed to Shannonville Motorsports Park tomorrow evening. Friday is morning practice and a four hour race in the afternoon. Tim and I will do that one and then we go straight into a double header weekend. Eight hour race, both days……. Weather looks promising. Six hours of seat time should be about enough!

[Don R]

How's the body/chassis restoration going in your Firebird Don ?
[/quote]

 The 40 chevy needed updates, the new to me GS1100 Suzuki, the race car, my brothers turd of a cb750 K2 and keeping my other 750's going has kept me busy so no progress on the firebird at all. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm lucky to be able to do it all but it's difficult for a one man show to keep all of the balls in the air at once. Three grown daughters and not one son-in law that is interested in any of it. A couple grandsons may miss out on the party if I can't hang in until they are bigger. The 8-year-old can turn wrenches and seems pretty mechanical.

[grcamna2]

How's the body/chassis restoration going in your Firebird Don ?

 The 40 chevy needed updates, the new to me GS1100 Suzuki, the race car, my brothers turd of a cb750 K2 and keeping my other 750's going has kept me busy so no progress on the firebird at all. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm lucky to be able to do it all but it's difficult for a one man show to keep all of the balls in the air at once. Three grown daughters and not one son-in law that is interested in any of it. A couple grandsons may miss out on the party if I can't hang in until they are bigger. The 8-year-old can turn wrenches and seems pretty mechanical.
[/quote]

I understand you 
I hope one of your grandchildren will desire to learn the trade.

[RAFster122s]

Best of luck on the track John and enjoy the season wrap up. Endurance racing can be grueling I'm told... definitely will be pushing the car hard for the finish of the season. Will you do an oil change between the 8 hour races?
Fresh brake pads for each race?
Do you power bleed the brakes, flush the fluid, when changing out pads? Are you using racing brake fluid or a good Dot 4?

[RAFster122s]

Don, yeah...that is a handful for one person to keep going and can understand your occasionally being frustrated with lack of help...
My Dad wasn't the mechanical type, he paid others to do most everything mechanical. I took up wrenching on cars and motorcycles to be able to afford to keep them running and give me an outlet for working with my hands, which i enjoy.

Hopefully your grandchildren will develop the interest and you can teach them some stuff and the critical thinking skills in diagnosing mechanical issues.